2391 Practical - Gone in 60 Seconds

[ron55]

Well almost!

Hi all, I am new to the forum (excellent by the way) and this is my first post so be gentle. It is long so please excuse that but I hope this post is of some help to those heading towards the 2391 practical assessment.

Firstly, a little bit of background about myself to give you a bit more of an understanding as to where I’m coming from. It is not meant as “The big I am” so don’t take it that way.

I am 51 and for the last 5 years I have been importing American Cars and rewiring them to be able to use on our roads. The 20 years before that I have been in electronics including having my own manufacturing place before it lost a fortune. I did my electrical apprenticeship at ICI from 74-78 and the last time I worked full time as a spark was in 1982 (in a 12 month stupor in New Orleans, one long party with the job getting in the way!)

Over the years I have always had the sparking qualifications to fall back on and have done numerous rewires and industrial work including the full installation at my factory. Because I was never full time I used a friends company for the installation tests after I had done the work without any problems. All well and good until the recent global downturn and American cars stopped selling and I figured I would bring my sparking qualifications up to date, especially as I was fully conversant with the 14th edition!! I might add that I was pretty hacked off to find my old qualifications counted for *** all.

So I booked on a 2 week course at Technique Training (highly recommended) in Chesterfield mainly for the 17th and inspection & test. A big eye opener it turned out to be with me learning far more than I expected to. No problems up until the 2391 practical assessment and then the fun begins. One guy was out at the first stage for not identifying all the visual problems and another was out for not being able to interpret the insulation resistance tests (N to E fault). I think this is right because they are basic things. So to me and the big test on the 3 phase board with the sub board which I thought would be fairly straight forward so you can imagine my horror at being terminated after 10 minutes!! The errors where a combination of comical and stupid.

The rig was meant to represent a downstairs shop and upstairs flat. When the test began the assessor asked me if I wanted to ask him anything so I asked how his wife was, where he lived and when it was last tested and he replied “I don’t know mate, I just bought the place.” Mmm a bit of roll playing, I hope he doesn’t pull out a school girls outfit for me to put on.

After I tested dead I started the continuity tests and he asked me if I was happy to continue with these tests and in words I can’t remember he was prompting me not to do so. This totally threw me and I started looking for the bleeding obvious but couldn’t find the bleeding obvious. For reasons unknown to me I took the front off the sub board, still confused and then went back to the main board and that was when he terminated the test. The failures were:

1) Not asking permission to switch off although in real life I have never not done this!

2) Incorrect testing dead. Two fold, I did forget to test to neutral - stupid. But the other was more interesting. After isolating the supply, I never checked on all the circuits to see if they were dead. You may think he was being picky here but two years ago I was nearly killed by a borrowed neutral putting 190v through me via an immersion heater so I couldn’t fault his decision.

3) Putting the voltage tester down and not checking it was still working when using it a second time.

4) This is the comical one. Removing the cover from the sub board, leaving it off and then coming “downstairs” to work on the main board! Maybe petty but I can also see his point of view that I had never correctly tested for borrowed neutrals. In real life I would not leave a board uncovered but this is a examination environment so you have to think little different.

So on to the retest in 2 weeks and more fun - how many goes can you have?!!!!!

Cheers, Ron

 

[desertbootz]

Slightly off topic but re. roll play in training or test situations... allegedly a true story so almost crtainly made up :O)

A number of Potential Officers are being tested on their problem solving skills, man-management, etc. by way of some mine tape, barrels, planks etc. They're mostly graduates and the like but include at least one 'old sweat' hoping to improve his lot by coming up from the ranks. They are given the task of getting across the 'ravine' marked out in mine tape using only the equipment available and theire ingenuity and teamwork. They are further informed that the imaginary ravine is filled, as they always are in the military, with 'shark infested custard.

A number of student led attempts are made with the usual barracking and 'encouragement' from the staff. It's wet, it's cold and after 20 minutes or so the 'old sweat' has seen enough.

"Right you lot, form up in two files" which with some cajolling they do. He joins one end and starts spinning his arms over his head and gets those at the front and back to do likewise "righto, follow me" he says and walks his group across the ravine whilst yelling "woka-woka-woka-woka-woka" at the top of his voice. The staff, who've watched silently up to this point, explodes;

"What the (NO SWEARING) was that?"
"Chinook" replies the old sweat
"Oh yeah! And where the (NO SWEARING) did you get a Chinook" asks the staff
"Same place you got the custard"